Are you suffering now from one or more of the following?
- Reduced ability to deal with stress
- Chronic muscle tension or pain
- Chronic illness such as fibromyalgia
- Chronic digestive problems, allergies or inflammation
- Symptoms of PTSD
- Flashbacks or panic attacks
- Hyper-vigilance or exaggerated startle response
- Persistent or recurring fear and anxiety
- Inability to connect with others
- Avoidance or procrastination
- Depression, numbness or detachment from life
- Alienation, isolation or feelings of helplessness and shame
Even though the above conditions are very different from each other, they all have something in common. They each indicate a problem with our nervous system – which is one of the communication systems in our body. When our nervous system is sending the wrong messages, we can feel like something bad is always happening.
Some of us feel like the bad thing is happening outside of us and we try to manage our environment or other people to feel better. Some of us feel like we are bad or wrong and we try to manage ourselves to feel better. Others of us develop chronic pain or illness. Many of us develop complicated coping methods in order to get through the day.
Ultimately, none of these attempts to feel better are successful and we end up living in survival mode, which is a hard, frustrating, unsatisfying and expensive way to live. Over time, survival oriented living tends to result in chronic pain, chronic illness, feelings of helplessness, isolation and negative feelings toward ourselves.
Did you experience one or more of the following?
- Prenatal distress, difficult birth, serious illness or hospitalization as an infant
- Separation from parent or caregiver in childhood, including adoption or foster care
- Early trauma, like neglect or abuse, before the age of 6
- Event trauma after the age of 6
There’s a connection between trauma and chronic stress, pain and illness.
Trauma occurs when we feel overwhelmed by a single or repeating experience. Overwhelm occurs when too much happens too fast. Because they are too much to deal with at the time, incomplete trauma responses are held in the body waiting, sometimes for decades, to be supported, understood and integrated.
Very early trauma, before the age of 3, occurs before the development of language. For this reason, those of us who experienced trauma very early in life may have no conscious memory of it and/or have tremendous difficulty talking about it. In this case, our memory of the trauma exists primarily as sensation. Often, as sensation associated with the conditions listed at the top of the page.
You can learn to feel comfortable and at ease within, even if you have never felt this before. There is a natural process that our bodies are able to go through in order to integrate trauma responses that are held in the body and develop or return our nervous system to its normal, healthy state of communication.
Somatic Experiencing and NARM are gentle, highly effective way to support this process – moving out of the trauma response, restoring a sense of balance to the nervous system and returning a sense of health, aliveness and wellbeing to our lives.
No matter what your life story has been, you can engage this natural ability within yourself. Signs of a healthy nervous system include: the ability to feel both relaxed and alert, emotional stability, the abiltiy to heal from or better manage chronic pain and chronic health conditions and the ability to react appropriately to unexpected events in our daily lives.
Somatic Experiencing and NARM are highly effective and move at a pace appropriate to your needs. If appropriate, gentle, supportive touch may be used in our sessions, but this is not necessary. SE and NARM are included in my Rolfing® sessions.
Call Stephanie for a free consultation: 209-614-7532
